Thursday, May 29, 2014
Got a New Kindle
I have had a Kindle Fire for 2 or 3 years now. It took me almost a year before I used it for anything other than internet browsing. I've always been a reader and have quite a few books here at home. So many, in fact, that I have to cull some every so often.
So it took some time to get used to having a book on a tablet. Eventually I did and now enjoy having many books available at once. I confess to often being in the process of reading several books at once. Right now the current list includes an electronics book, an algebra book, Colonel Roosevelt, We Were Soldiers Once, The Bear Went Over The Mountain, and Adams Smith's .......Wealth of Nations, not to mention several magazines that show up every month. The Kindle makes all of this possible and easy. Some books aren't even available in hard copy like Matt Bracken's Anthology. Now, there are some books that I still want copies of, the electronics and algebra books I'm reading now being examples. I can make notes in margins or save for later or pass on to somebody.
My older kindle had much less storage, wasn't great for magazines (print was too small) and did not do well too far from my router in my house.
My new Kindle is the 8.9 HDX 32g. The magazines are much easier to read, the keyboard is a regular qwerty type (I never got used to the punctuation above the keyboard on my other,) the resolution is better on videos and I'm typing this on the new K now. Blogging was something I gave up trying on the other one.
I'm very happy I decided to "upgrade." Amazon letting me buy it with 5 no interest payments doesn't hurt either.
Monday, May 26, 2014
The VA scandal
I am no fan of the current occupant of the White House and that is a grand understatement!
But this VA scandal is not something that the genesis of should be laid at his feet, although he is a great admirer of and promoter of the nexus of the problem. The VA scandal is the Arlington Cemetery Mismanagement Scandal, is the Katrina response scandal is the....you get the gist.
Fed.gov is toooooo BIG! The analogy of cancer is quick to hand, the many cells consuming what the healthy need, taking over, crowding out. The Fed.gov is too corpulent to move at any rate of speed even approaching glacial.
The bosses of the VA, Arlington NC, etc, Secretaries and the like, are mostly in place due to favors owed them, always have been. These people are much too removed from their charges to care or to be feared in the main. Scandals have to reach a certain "stage" in the national media before a head will roll. Probably because up until head rolling time that person is serving as a shield for the POTUS.
The current VA situation is most likely worse now because of the many veterans we have now due to Iraq and Afghanistan, but our Veterans have deserved better for many years. Welcoming Sgt Jones home with a parade is cool, everyone can get into the rhythm of that. But when Jones starts drinking or acting different most of us want the problem to go away.
I'd also like to add that the fact we need things like the Wounded Warrior Project is upsetting. These men and women should already have the best care for anything they need, IN THE WORLD! Now, each community should band together and help their veterans, show them they are appreciated and valued. Maybe that means building a house or retrofitting a house to make a vet more independent. But we have far too many .orgs here that exist because of the hell that is red tape and denials of service that many vets face.
I'm not sure that there is any possibility that this country with as many people in it as there are now is manageable at a Federal level at all. I've said for years we should divide up into maybe 4 equal parts. With each part responsible for almost all of its own business, a vice president, elected in that section, to be part of a board of directors with the POTUS as the chair for anything like a war or some other thing that needs 300+ million peoples attention. Maybe that could be an answer. Of course the original framers had a similar idea what with the Constitution and that 10th amendment and all.
What is certain and for sure is that as long as we depend on the bloated fed.gov to administer anything it will be done wastefully, slowly, and with little compassion.
But this VA scandal is not something that the genesis of should be laid at his feet, although he is a great admirer of and promoter of the nexus of the problem. The VA scandal is the Arlington Cemetery Mismanagement Scandal, is the Katrina response scandal is the....you get the gist.
Fed.gov is toooooo BIG! The analogy of cancer is quick to hand, the many cells consuming what the healthy need, taking over, crowding out. The Fed.gov is too corpulent to move at any rate of speed even approaching glacial.
The bosses of the VA, Arlington NC, etc, Secretaries and the like, are mostly in place due to favors owed them, always have been. These people are much too removed from their charges to care or to be feared in the main. Scandals have to reach a certain "stage" in the national media before a head will roll. Probably because up until head rolling time that person is serving as a shield for the POTUS.
The current VA situation is most likely worse now because of the many veterans we have now due to Iraq and Afghanistan, but our Veterans have deserved better for many years. Welcoming Sgt Jones home with a parade is cool, everyone can get into the rhythm of that. But when Jones starts drinking or acting different most of us want the problem to go away.
I'd also like to add that the fact we need things like the Wounded Warrior Project is upsetting. These men and women should already have the best care for anything they need, IN THE WORLD! Now, each community should band together and help their veterans, show them they are appreciated and valued. Maybe that means building a house or retrofitting a house to make a vet more independent. But we have far too many .orgs here that exist because of the hell that is red tape and denials of service that many vets face.
I'm not sure that there is any possibility that this country with as many people in it as there are now is manageable at a Federal level at all. I've said for years we should divide up into maybe 4 equal parts. With each part responsible for almost all of its own business, a vice president, elected in that section, to be part of a board of directors with the POTUS as the chair for anything like a war or some other thing that needs 300+ million peoples attention. Maybe that could be an answer. Of course the original framers had a similar idea what with the Constitution and that 10th amendment and all.
What is certain and for sure is that as long as we depend on the bloated fed.gov to administer anything it will be done wastefully, slowly, and with little compassion.
Happy Memorial Day.
I apologize for being most of 2 months between my last post and this. I have no excuse good enough, except maybe I had little in the way of ideas or doings I thought you good people might care to read.
I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day. It is 8 p.m. Mon evening here. I saw a great many motorcycles, boats and campers on my way to work this evening, which is where I am at now. It was suggested at my home this weekend that a trip to a local mountain swimming hole would be nice. Thankfully, the clock argued against that idea. I hate going to that place on ANY holiday weekend much less the "Official start to summer!"
According to the inter webs and as is fitting, soldiers graves have been remembered for a long time. Whether forced to the task by lashes across their backs or driven by a sense of duty, honor, love of country and or brother, a man that marches forward into the unknown unsure of his injury or death or that of his compatriots is to be admired with deep heartfelt emotions. I am unsure of the evolution of a person's humanity that is not stirred by the notes of Taps or who doesn't feel a deep tugging while walking hallowed ground be it battlefield or cemetery
The practice of remembrance seems to have been much accelerated though by the ladies of the South during and after the War of Northern Aggression although there are many instances of organized remembrances from that period of our history, owing mainly to the fact, I'm sure, that more than 600,000 soldiers died in those four years.
I had wrote (tapped) a bunch of stuff lamenting the loss of this days.......... Honor, I suppose is the word.
But I deleted it.
We have a fight coming in this country, I hope, as opposed to just sliding away into the cavernous, fetid, gullet of slavery. It will be a few committed Patriots vs the oligarchy and its minions, both conscripted and bamboozled. The odds will be much worse than the South faced during The War of NA.
If we are to win, I feel, we must not desire so much to survive as to be remembered on future Decoration days. We must not dash ourselves carelessly away upon nothing, but must willingly give of ourselves at the right time and place so that our offspring know that they possess something of value, the freedom we earned for them and that they may honor us on our Decoration Day.
My blog friend Harry Flashman has often said that he thinks he was born some years too late. I share that feeling. In that, among other things, generations past seem to have a deeper more meaningful connection to their past generations. There was a deeper respect and understanding, a more, Gentlemanly attitude.
In closing to my ramblings I post some things I thought of this weekend.
The ubiquitous In Flanders Fields. A poem written by a Canadian Dr in WW1, John McRae.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
.
From the same period, WW1, there is the Scottish song Sgt MacKenzie, with much the same feeling as Flander Fields.
Wikepedia for Sgt MacKenzie
And a contemporary song, Arlington. I've been to Arlington twice. It is a very moving and humbling experience.
Once again, I hope you had a fantastic Memorial Day!
I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day. It is 8 p.m. Mon evening here. I saw a great many motorcycles, boats and campers on my way to work this evening, which is where I am at now. It was suggested at my home this weekend that a trip to a local mountain swimming hole would be nice. Thankfully, the clock argued against that idea. I hate going to that place on ANY holiday weekend much less the "Official start to summer!"
According to the inter webs and as is fitting, soldiers graves have been remembered for a long time. Whether forced to the task by lashes across their backs or driven by a sense of duty, honor, love of country and or brother, a man that marches forward into the unknown unsure of his injury or death or that of his compatriots is to be admired with deep heartfelt emotions. I am unsure of the evolution of a person's humanity that is not stirred by the notes of Taps or who doesn't feel a deep tugging while walking hallowed ground be it battlefield or cemetery
The practice of remembrance seems to have been much accelerated though by the ladies of the South during and after the War of Northern Aggression although there are many instances of organized remembrances from that period of our history, owing mainly to the fact, I'm sure, that more than 600,000 soldiers died in those four years.
I had wrote (tapped) a bunch of stuff lamenting the loss of this days.......... Honor, I suppose is the word.
But I deleted it.
We have a fight coming in this country, I hope, as opposed to just sliding away into the cavernous, fetid, gullet of slavery. It will be a few committed Patriots vs the oligarchy and its minions, both conscripted and bamboozled. The odds will be much worse than the South faced during The War of NA.
If we are to win, I feel, we must not desire so much to survive as to be remembered on future Decoration days. We must not dash ourselves carelessly away upon nothing, but must willingly give of ourselves at the right time and place so that our offspring know that they possess something of value, the freedom we earned for them and that they may honor us on our Decoration Day.
My blog friend Harry Flashman has often said that he thinks he was born some years too late. I share that feeling. In that, among other things, generations past seem to have a deeper more meaningful connection to their past generations. There was a deeper respect and understanding, a more, Gentlemanly attitude.
In closing to my ramblings I post some things I thought of this weekend.
The ubiquitous In Flanders Fields. A poem written by a Canadian Dr in WW1, John McRae.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
.
From the same period, WW1, there is the Scottish song Sgt MacKenzie, with much the same feeling as Flander Fields.
And a contemporary song, Arlington. I've been to Arlington twice. It is a very moving and humbling experience.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Thief in my house.
I have a wooden cigar box that I have kept my silver in for several years. Most of the coins were pre-64 junk. Dollars down to dimes with several "new" silver dollars thrown in. When each of my kids (4) was born I would buy several dollars with their birth years on them as a possible way to generate their interest later on. I've been buying coins since 1990.
Most of the coins were bought off Ebay and from local dealers. There was one $5 Canadian piece my (deceased) mother in law gave me for one of my kids at Christmas years ago, a mercury dime I got from a vending machine at work and a few halves I got at a Family Dollar store when the person in front of me paid with them years ago. Last weeks purchase of bars was my first ever non coin silver purchase.
Anyway, I picked the box up off the shelf and knew it was light. Several rolls each of quarters, dimes, halves and dollars isn't light. All of my rolls are gone. All but a couple of the "birth year" dollars included. Some of the coins were wrapped in the little cardboard protectors collectors use and some of those were left. Why, I do not know. Maybe the thief grew a sudden kernel of a conscience? Doubt it, I figure they were left to get later on.
I suppose they were taken one day when I had gotten something from the safe to go shoot out in the yard. There are 2 "suspects," both known to lie and steal, both sons of mine, 1 took my wife's wedding set and a couple other rings, last year. We found 2 of the rings, THE diamond missing from the big one (not the original set, the original set had more in common with Cracker Jacks than diamonds and gold.) He said he found the rings in our driveway and figured they were TREASURE! and pawned them in town. We had the diamond ring repaired at a large out of pocket expense AFTER insurance.
The wife doesn't want to kick the one out of the house for fear of how he may end up. My pointing out that we can't afford to keep going like this, in constant fear of large losses, and that he has ALREADY mostly "ended up" doesn't seem to make a dent. The other son doesn't live "with us," right now he is sponging off my father in law but he does visit with our grandson.
I have no way of knowing which one took the coins. I am thinking of offering a $100 cash reward, coupled with "staying in the will" for proof of who did it. The "will" isn't much but it does have a few firearms. Until I figure who the guilty party is I'm probably cutting both out and off.
The loss of the $$$ is bothersome (A LOT!!) but it hurts more to know that I raised 2 of the kind of people I despise the most, that I cannot walk out of the room without locking anything of value up so it will be there when I get back. I suppose I better look into security for my other things like ammo and tools now. Instead of a new rifle or pistol I'll be buying gang boxes.
How do you raise a thief? I'm sure it's easy if you set out to do it, but how do you manage to accidentally do it? I made both of them give back extra change when they were little. I always talked (lectured) on morals and such when alone with any one of them in the truck or elsewhere. I've never stolen anything so I couldn't have done that in front of them.
I don't understand. I tried to do all the right stuff and ended up with 2 people I would not speak to in public once I got to know them if I say, met them at work or school or wherever. They both talk a good game up front. They both dislike Obama and liberals. They both sound just like me, according to other people. So.......do other people think I'm a thief and they've just never caught me? Or do my kids only steal from me? Doubtful.
It's depressing, in many, many different ways.
This is a gang box or job box. A large metal box for the safekeeping of tools and such on construction sites. When a Master lock is put on it the hasp of the lock is unreachable with bolt cutters. Full of ammo and or tools, you would need a forklift to move one.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Things that make you say, "Wellll duhhhhh!" "The Stock Market is Rigged"
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/mar/31/us-stock-market-rigged-michael-lewis
The author says that the super rich, using super computers, see what you want to trade and buy it just before you do, talking micro seconds here, then sell it to you at a higher price.
Capitalism, I cannot argue against it.
BUT, I do recommend alternate investments (I'm poor & broke so don't ask me) but it seemslike the writing is on the wall. The rich and powerful rig the game, don't play it.
If possible, own your own business. I know a couple barbers, 1 bought something from me once. He has STACKS of cash at his business.
Invest in commodities you can touch/use. You can eat beans, shoot bullets and band aids....duh.
Fight back, don't let Warren Buffet George Soros or anyone else use YOUR own money to get themselves richer.
Albuquerque protests James Boyd murder (and others) by police
Most recent killing by ABQ police.
Coverage of protests, Fox news, and ABQ Journal.
Coverage of protests, Fox news, and ABQ Journal.
It feels odd. I suppose that there are more "99%-ers" in the protests than there are people like me, and hoping Eric Holder's justice dept finds something actionable gives me the shivers.
One thing I do NOT understand is why the protesters are not doing their thing in front of the homes of the police brass and mayor and council members also. Not to mention the actual trigger men.
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